Sinopec Digs Up Gas Tanks for BYD 1,500 kW Chargers
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- Sinopec removed underground gasoline tanks from its 1209 Huqingping Road Shanghai station and installed six BYD "T"-shaped flash chargers (12 spots total) — the first jointly-operated site from its June 3 partnership with BYD.
- Each charger is backed by four BYD Blade LFP battery packs holding 169–185 kWh, letting the site draw only ~100 kW from the grid while delivering up to 1,500 kW per connector.
- On a compatible car with a second-gen Blade battery, charging goes from 10–70% in about five minutes and 10–97% in roughly nine minutes, stretching to ~12 minutes at -30°C.
- Sinopec runs 30,000+ service stations and 14,000+ charging/swap stations serving roughly 20 million customers daily, with chairman Hou Qijun framing the deal as promoting "green transformation and upgrading of China's transportation network."
- BYD had built over 6,100 flash charging stations as of late May and is targeting 20,000 in China by end of 2026, with Sinopec's 30,000-station footprint enabling faster rollout without grid rebuilds.
Why it matters: Sinopec's choice to cannibalize its own forecourts rather than cede traffic to standalone networks turns 30,000 prime-located gas stations into EV infrastructure, and the buffered-battery design — pulling 100 kW from the grid while pushing 1,500 kW to the car — sidesteps the substation-upgrade bottleneck that has stalled US and European megawatt-charger plans.
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